6 notable moments for Mike Pence on Air Force Two

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, paused Friday at the Indianapolis International Airport for a selfie with Stephanie Eastman, of Indianapolis, and her daughter Kaylee, Sept. 22, 2017. Stephanie's husband, Jason, is serving in Iraq.
Robert King

Buy Photo

Vice President-elect Mike Pence and his family prepare to depart Indianapolis International Airport for Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Jan. 9. With him are his wife, Karen; daughter, Charlotte; and cats, Oreo and Pickle.(Photo: Matt Kryger / IndyStar)Buy Photo

WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence has already spent a considerable amount of time on Air Force Two, making four overseas trips and traveling to more than half the states. Here are some of the more notable moments:

Truncated trip to Indianapolis Colts game

In between trips to Nevada and California this month, Pence stopped in Indianapolis to attend the Indianapolis Colts game where former quarterback Peyton Manning was being honored at halftime. But Pence left after the national anthem when some of the San Francisco 49ers knelt to raise awareness of racial inequalities in the nation. Pence said the players were disrespecting national symbols. But critics called it a political stunt at taxpayers’ expense. (Air Force Two costs about $30,000 an hour to operate, according to 2016 Air Force documents.)

Have watched Prez/VPs since Nixon/Agnew.

Don't remember as pure (or costly) a political stunt as Pence going to game intending to walk out. https://t.co/MW6ewa7yjO

Pets on the plane

The pet-loving Pences brought along the family cats, Oreo and Pickle, and rabbit Marlon Bundo when they flew to Washington, D.C., for Pence’s inauguration. Pence told Hoosiers celebrating with him the night before the ceremony that outgoing Vice President Joe Biden had been kind enough to send the plane.

Heading toward a missile launch

Air Force Two was on its way to South Korea in April when North Korea launched its latest ballistic missile.

The plane’s high-tech, secure communications system allowed Pence to learn right away what was happening and talk to President Donald Trump about it.

The press, however, doesn’t have internet access on the plane so did not find out until briefed by Pence’s aides. His foreign policy adviser downplayed the significance of the failed launch of the missile, which blew up almost immediately.

Longest trip

Pence spent the most time in the air — about 53 hours — during that April trip to South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Australia. Air Force Two logged 21,750 nautical miles. On the trip home, Pence left Australia on a Monday morning, flew to American Samoa for a refueling stop and then to Hawaii. When he woke up again the next morning, it was still Monday. That "Back to the Future" experience prompted Lotter to tweet: “I can neither confirm nor deny Air Force Two has a flux capacitor.”

His plane, his movie

The lengthy trip allowed for some dowetime, and Pence just happened to bring along his personal copy of the movie “Hoosiers.”

After leaving Indonesia for Australia, Lotter announced that, after lunch, all would be required to watch what Pence calls the “greatest sports movie ever made.”

“It was not, however, 'Slapshot' or 'Invictus', but 'Hoosiers,’” Andrew Beatty, the Agence France Presse reporter taking notes for the press pool wrote afterward. “As Gene Hackman and the Hickory Huskers did their thing, AF2 tracked across the Australian outback — offering a great view of Uluru (once known as Ayers Rock) — and onward to New South Wales.”

Aboard Pence's AF2 to Australia tonight, watching "Hoosiers," at the request of the VP, was pretty unavoidable with the screens overhead. pic.twitter.com/i4i46uyGXE

Pushing for a health care bill

Pence doesn’t talk to the reporters on his plane on every flight and, when he does, he doesn’t always make news. But when Pence gave Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a ride from New York back to Washington as Graham was making a final push for a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare last month, a reporter was invited to the front cabin for an update on negotiations.

In between phone calls with Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, Pence told the reporter the White House was fully behind Graham’s bill. Pence said he also planned to tell senators after landing that the House would not support efforts to prop up Obamacare, a blow to a bipartisan effort to stabilize the insurance market.

That message moved quickly through Washington, but failed to provide the necessary momentum to get Graham’s bill through the Senate.